Local roundup: Armstrong women's basketball team tops Anderson 79-68

Saturday

Nov 17, 2012 at 10:40 PM

Savannah Morning News

The host Armstrong Atlantic State University Pirates rebounded from their first loss of the season to pick up a 79-68 win over Anderson (S.C.), wrapping up action in the Fairfield Inn & Suites Pirate Classic on Saturday.

The Pirates (3-1) shot a blistering 58.6 percent from the field in the first half, also knocking down 7-of-13 3-pointers in building a 42-30 lead at intermission. Anderson (2-2) battled back after the break, opening up the second half on a 12-5 run to cut the lead to 47-42 with 14:26 left in the game on two free throws from the Trojans' Breonda Shannon.

On the next possession, junior Tori Klewicki-McNutt nailed a 3-pointer to push the Pirates' lead back to eight and spark a 9-0 run that had Armstrong build a 59-42 lead with just over 10 minutes remaining. Anderson would get no closer to eight points to the Pirates the rest of the way.

"Tonight we played for 40 minutes," Armstrong coach Matt Schmidt said. "Last night (in a loss to Lynn) we played 20. It's nice to see us put together an entire game on both sides of the floor. I thought Bryonna Davis led the way for us tonight, offensively and defensively, and the play of Demisha Mills was outstanding. Her aggressiveness and ability to rebound the basketball was big for us."

Davis led all scorers on the day for the Pirates with 20 points, while Mills added 16 points and seven rebounds. Klewicki-McNutt hit seven of 11 shots from the floor, including 3 of 6 on 3-pointers, en route to 17 points. Dee Hayward came off the bench to chip in 10 points.

VALDOSTA - Senior Aric Miller scored a career-high 34 points to lead Armstrong to a win over Carver Bible in the Valdosta State Classic, logging the Pirates' first win of 2012-13.

Armstrong (1-1) shot 49 percent from the floor. Carver Bible fell to 0-7 on the season.

Miller hit 12 of 17 shots from the floor, including 4 of 6 on 3-pointers and 6 of 8 from the free-throw line en route to his career-high total. It was the most points scored by an Armstrong player since Keron McKenzie hit for 34 in the first round of the PBC Tournament on March 3, 2010 at No. 1 Augusta State.

Kyle Callanan hit six of nine shots from the floor en route to 14 points, while Antroine Williford narrowly missed a double-double with 14 points and nine rebounds.

The Pirates (31-5) will face either second-seeded Flagler or sixth-seeded Lander at 2 p.m. today for the PBC Tournament title. Augusta State (19-15) awaits a possible at-large berth into the NCAA Championships.